USDA downgrads Minn.'s soybean, corn crop

Minnesota farmers saw this year's weather problems reflected in the U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced harvest estimate.

The USDA dropped its projected corn and soybean yields for the state; corn by five bushels an acre, soybeans by one bushel. The downgrade puts the average corn yield at 160 bushels an acre, a 10 percent decline from last year's record. Total production should be about 1.2 billion bushels.

Minnesota extension crops specialist Liz Stahl said the weather was difficult this year.

"Beginning of the season it was too wet. Planting then got too late and we had drown out areas as well," she said. "Then it got too dry, and then we had a frost too early."

The USDA estimate slashed the value of Minnesota's corn crop by about $240 million, but farmers though should still make a good profit on their crops. Corn and soybean prices have been far above historic norms for most of the year.